April 3, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - In front of a packed home crowd, the UCF men's tennis team upset No. 72 Florida Atlantic, 4-3, on Thursday at the UCF Tennis Complex. Junior Brock Sakey (Gulf Breeze, Fla./Gulf Breeze) won his singles match at No. 4 to give the Knights their fourth point of the afternoon, and the win.
UCF (10-8) earned its sixth win at home and has won seven of its last 10 matches.
"We're playing at a much higher level now than before," said UCF head coach Bobby Cashman. "Our effort in singles was tremendous as far as resiliency. Our three and four stepped up today. I really feel like our fitness and mental toughness helped us out."
Despite dropping the first doubles tilt at No. 3, senior Nikolas Overkemping (Bonn, Germany) and freshman Claudio Romano (Valencia, Venezuela) cruised to a win at No. 1 against Olivier Sajous and Daniel Vardag, 8-3, to even up doubles at one apiece.
However, Florida Atlantic (13-5) earned the first point of the match with a doubles win at No. 2 from Marc Abdelnour and Eddie Majcher.
In singles action, the Knights picked up the pace, earning victories at courts three through six.
Junior Tarek Ben Soltane (Tunis, Tunisia) took a 7-5, 6-1 decision at the No. 5 spot against Vardag. Ben Soltane earned the Knights their 15th-straight win on court five.
UCF earned its second point from freshman Blaze Schwartz (Pensacola, Fla./Washington). Schwartz defeated Joe Cadogan, 6-4, 6-2. Since March 5, the Pensacola native owns an 8-2 singles mark.
The Owls would rattle off back-to-back singles wins at Nos. 1 and 2 to go ahead, 3-2.
At No. 3, sophomore Johan Beigart (Vaxjo, Sweden) took Corey Smith down to the wire. After falling in the first, 6-1, Beigart won the next two sets, 7-5, 6-3, giving UCF its third point.
Sakey closed out the match in three sets at No. 4 against Karol Szmurlo, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Sakey is in a three-way tie for most singles wins on the team with 11.
UCF improves to 20-6 all-time against the Owls.
The Knights return to the courts for their final regular-season match against Jacksonville at the UCF Tennis Complex on April 12. First serve against the Dolphins is set for 11 a.m.
Admission to all UCF home matches is free.
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